


Do You Remember?

by ThatCatLover



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe- No Magical Girls, Clara Dolls are real dolls, F/F, Fluff, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, I just had to add him in, Kyubey is a toy animal that appears for two sentences, The little shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 02:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14707556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatCatLover/pseuds/ThatCatLover
Summary: Homura remembered Madoka as her best friend from pre-k. Homura moved away. Madoka didn't remember Homura. Homura remembers Madoka. Homura moves back.(It's better than the summary, I swear, just trust me on this one)Also, this was supposed to be a cute little preschool-au drabble. Now it's over 2000 words. What happened?!





	Do You Remember?

Four-year-old Homura Akemi was shy.

Four-year-old Homura Akemi, crouched in a corner at daycare crying quietly and begging to go home to her mama and dada. Four-year-old Homura Akemi, pulling at the braids that her mama had tied in that morning with purple ribbons and pushing her face into her knees so hard that her face had marks on it from her glasses. Her body pressed against her legs so much, she could swear that the pencil case that she had in her lap was going to shatter. Four-year-old Homura Akemi just wanted to go home.

“Hi!” A high pitched voice chirped behind her. “My name is Madoka Kaname. What’s yours?”

Four-year-old Homura Akemi turned just a smidge and pointed to herself so that this girl, Madoka Kaname, could see it.

“Yes you, silly! What’s your name? My name is Madoka Kaname! My mama taught me how to spell it, see? M-A-D, umm… what’s next, oh!- D-O-K-A!”

Homura turned around, fingering her ribbons. “I’m Homura Akemi.” Her voice was still shaky from crying. She faced Madoka.

Madoka was pretty. She had pink hair and eyes. Her hair was tied back into two pigtails with pink ribbon and she wore a- you guessed it- pink dress with white stockings and black shoes. She was smiling and holding a stuffed animal in her hand.

Homura tried to match Madoka’s smile but her mouth twitched back into a frown from crying so much.

“Oh no! Why are you crying, Homu?” Madoka asked. (Homura briefly wondered where the nickname had come from and why Madoka already considered herself close enough to Homura to give her a nickname.)

“I-I wanna go home.” Homura sniffled, fresh tears beginning to sprout. Madoka gasped.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you cry more! I wanna cheer you up! Wanna play with me?” Madoka asked, her words rushed.

“Play?” Homura asked, “Why?”

“Because playing is fun and fun makes you happy and I wanna make you happy, Homu-chan!” Madoka. “This is Kyubey! Kyubey can make all of your dreams come true” She held up the toy animal in her hand. It looked like it had once been a white toy cat but it appeared that someone had sewn something- were those socks? Yes, those were definitely socks- to the insides of the ears.

Homura uncurled herself and pulled the pencil box off of her lap. She had gotten an indent in her white shirt from it. She held it up for Madoka to see and shook it a bit. The contents clattered inside. 

“My dolls are in here,” Homura said. Well, really, they hadn’t always been hers. Her mama had picked them up at the thrift store some time ago as a birthday gift for Homura. The had still been in the bag that they were given to the store in, the words “Clara’s Dolls” written on it in crayon, and then again in pen.

Homura opened the box on the floor and pulled them out for Madoka to see, saying their names as she did “Ibari, Nekura, Usotsuki, Reiketsu, Wagamama, Warakuchi, Noroma, Yakimochi, Namake, Mie, Okubyou, Manake, Higami, Ganko.” None of them were very pretty, some might even say they were scary, with there black clothes and pointy teeth, but they were all Homura had.

“They’re cute!” Madoka squealed, “They look homemade, did you make these, Homura?”

Homura shook her head. Cute? Madoka Kaname was full of surprises. 

“D-do you still want to play?” Homura asked, fearful that maybe Madoka had changed her mind.

“Of course! Do you want to come meet my other friend, too?” Madoka questioned sweetly.

Homura nodded blankly. She couldn't get past the phrase ‘other friend’. If Madoka said ‘other’ does that mean that she already saw Homura as a friend? Homura wasn’t sure but she allowed herself to be lead over to Madoka’s friend, Sayaka Miki, a girl with short blue hair and a defensive attitude that took one look at Homura and announced that Madoka was her best friend, almost waiting for Homura to try to claim Madoka.

(Homura wanted to)

(Homura didn’t)

Despite Homura and Sayaka not being the best of friends, they had one silent agreement: behave for Madoka who would cry if she saw anyone, especially her friends, fighting. And so the three played together every single day of daycare, having to be dragged away from each other at pick up.

This carried on for several months, until one day in January, Homura told her friend and Sayaka that her family was moving away to a city near Mitakihara, but not close enough to still go to daycare. She would be going to daycare in Kazamino.

Madoka and Homura cried and Sayaka even looked a little upset though she said it wasn’t as bad as Homura leaving Japan.

(Madoka cried even harder at the thought of that.)

And not a week later, the girls were dragged apart for the last time. Homura’s parents promised that they could keep in touch. Homura’s parents never followed through on that promise.

(On her first night in her new apartment, Homura dreams of a laughing girl with pink hair asking her to play, who moves farther and farther away from Homura until she’s out of sight and Homura’s begging her to come back. Homura wakes up crying and alone.)

The people at Homura’s new daycare and eventually her new school are mean. They say that her dolls are ugly and scary and the teacher has to call home and ask Homura’s parents to not let Homura bring them to school anymore because they scared the other kids. On Halloween, though it isn’t a big holiday in Japan, the teacher lets them all dress up. Homura sticks out like a sore thumb in her witch costume among the other girls dressed as fairies, princesses, and magical girls from anime.

Again, Homura gets a call home.

As she grows older, her classmates only grow more cruel, going from ignoring her to outright bullying her. Starting small by pulling on her braids and stealing her glasses to eventually writing words of hate on her desk, throwing her food on the floor, and hitting and kicking her in the hallways and in class when the teacher wasn’t looking.

It only got worse when her heart started to fail her. She would be out of air from doing so little. Her classmates would chase her around the school until she couldn’t breathe and collapsed from exhaustion so they could kick her unconscious body and leave her outside, unnoticed.

Most people don’t remember daycare. Homura remembered all of it. Every second of having a friend, someone who was kind, someone to depend on. 

Homura took out her braids, put in contact lenses and spent weeks practicing a cold, stony look to remain on her face. So what if she was lonely? She didn’t need anyone to depend on.

Not even Madoka Kaname.

Her classmates left her alone now. She looked pretty and graceful with her flowing hair and slow movements. (she’s slow so that she doesn’t wear herself out, but they don’t need to know that) 

(She is still lonely)

Her heart worsens and her parents start looking for a hospital that can fix her.

(They say help. She knows they mean fix.)

Homura suggests a hospital in Mitakihara. She says they have want she needs in Mitakihara. (She never specifies what)

She goes there in summer. They fix her by the middle of fall. School has started. Homura stays in Mitakihara, claiming that if her heart is damaged again, she’s close enough to be fixed.

Fourteen-year-old Homura Akemi enrolls into Mitakihara Middle School. Madoka’s school. She marches into class with her head held high. She stands in the front of the room while her new teacher introduces her and the class oohs and ahhs and for a second Homura thinks she really does need to go back to the hospital because she just felt her heart stop.

Madoka Kaname is in the fourth row.

When she sat down, the girls flocked to her desk. All of them in the class but three. Madoka and Sayaka, along with another girl with green hair remained at Madoka’s desk. Homura wanted to walk over but the other girls all crowded her so much that she couldn’t even stand. They asked questions that Homura replied to with clipped and cold one word answers. She turned her head to Madoka who was previously staring at her. Madoka, instead of smiling, blushed deeply and turned back to her friends.

During lunch, Homura walked up to Madoka’s table. It wasn’t just Madoka, Sayaka and green hair. Two other girls were with them, one with golden drill pigtails and one with a long red ponytail who was bickering with Sayaka about something that Homura couldn’t care less about.

“Excuse me, may I sit here? I can’t find a seat.” She said.

Everyone stopped looked up. Redhead and Sayaka dropped their argument, though Redhead continued to poke Sayaka in the arm.

Madoka, bless her soul, broke out of her stupor first and replied with “Of course, you can sit here” and so Homura sat down

“Thank you, Madoka,” Homura replied and Madoka made a small noise of shock.

“Um, h-how do you know my name?” She asked fearfully and Homura froze.

She didn’t remember. Of course, she didn’t remember, no one remembered daycare. She recovered quickly.

“Oh, the teacher told me your name because you’re the nurse’s aide. Sorry, I guess that was a little awkward.” Homura said. The tension at the table defused a lot.

Redhead glanced at Homura and said, “So, you know ‘Doka here, but who the hell are you?” She had a stick of pocky hanging from her mouth like a cigarette that surprisingly hadn’t fallen out while she spoke.

Sayaka elbowed her in the gut, “Kyoko, she’s literally in our class. You just slept through her introduction.” (to be fair, Homura hadn’t noticed Kyoko, either)

“My name is Homura Akemi,” Homura said, glancing briefly at Madoka and even Sayaka to see if there was any reaction. While Sayaka stared at her blankly like ‘no duh, you said that in class and, unlike Kyoko, I stay awake in class’ Madoka cocked her head a bit, and mouthed Homura Akemi to herself as if she had once heard the name in a dream and was trying to place it.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Akemi. I’m Mami Tomoe. I’m afraid I won’t be in class with you, I’m a ninth grader.” Gold-drill said and Homura nodded politely.

“My name is Hitomi Shizuki.” Green hair said. She said nothing else. 

Sayaka pointed to herself and said “Sayaka Miki.” Homura had a feeling she wasn’t going to be any closer to Sayaka now than she was as a kid.

“So, Ms. Akemi, where did you move here from?” Mami asked. 

“Kazamino City,” Homura replied

“Oh, did you?” Hitomi asked, “Ms. Sakura comes from that place, too.” Homura noticed how Hitomi said the words ‘Ms. Sakura’ and ‘that place’ as if they were insults. She assumed that Hitomi got along just spectacularly with Kyoko.

“I’m so happy you remembered, Ms. Seaweed,” Kyoko replied with a sneer. Then to Homura, she said sarcastically “We’re from the same big ass city, great bonding material, am I right, Homerun?” 

Homura raised an eyebrow and Sayaka facepalmed “Homerun? Kyoko, are you deaf? You know it’s Homura, right?” Sayaka groaned.

Kyoko’s cheeks filled with a light pink taint “I knew that! Geez, Saya, I’m not stupid like you!”

“Stupid?!” Sayaka cried incredulously. The two started arguing again. Hitomi groaned and Mami sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, letting her friends fight.

Homura felt someone looking at her and turned to look at Madoka who, again, had been staring at her and, again, blushed and looked away, muttering an apology. They sat awkwardly for a few moments, listening to Sayaka and Kyoko throw insults at each other until Madoka gently pulled on Homura’s sleeve.

“Um, Homura, would you like to walk home with me today?” Madoka asked quietly.

“I’d love to,” Homura replied, taking Madoka’s hand off of her sleeve, setting it down on the seat, and covering it with her own. They stayed that way until the bell rang for them to return to class.

Madoka and Homura walked home in comfortable silence. It was slightly windy out and it was at times like these where Homura missed having her hair tied back in braids. Madoka was lucky to have short hair, luckier to have it secured back into pigtails while Homura was stuck with her headband. Madoka finally noticed that something was wrong when Homura tossed her hair back with her hand for possibly the fifth time in a minute.

“Is your hair bothering you, Homura?” Madoka asked.

Homura smiled “Just a bit, the wind keeps blowing it in my face, but I’ll be fine.”

Madoka studied Homura’s face for a second before taking her wrist and pulling her to a small hill on next to the sidewalk saying “Here, let me help you!”

Madoka sat down on the grass and patted the spot in front of her. Homura sat down slowly facing Madoka but she put her hands on Homura’s shoulders and turning her away from herself. What was Madoka doing?

“Aw, Homura, you’re really tense, relax. I’m just doing your hair to keep it out of your face.” Madoka chirped. Homura forced herself to relax somewhat because really, who could say no to something like that?

Homura relaxed even further as Madoka separated her hair into two equal amounts and started singing quietly “kawashita yakusoku wasurenai yo me wo toji tashikameru~...” 

Homura was nearly asleep by the time Madoka had finished twisting her hair. “All done,” Madoka said quietly. Homura touched the back of her head. Her hair had been pulled back into to braids and tied with pink ribbon. Madoka’s ribbons? Homura turned to face her friend who giggled, “I always carry extra, just in case they fall out. They’re cute on you. You look pretty, Homura.”

Homura felt her face heat up and an urge to cover her face. Suddenly Madoka cocked her head and squinted at Homura.

“Homura, have we met before?” Madoka asked uncertainty.

Homura’s heart quicked and her eyes welled up. Finally.

“Yes,” She whispered.

She watched Madoka as the realization sunk in and a smile broke across the pink girl’s face. “It is you! I remember now! This is great! I haven’t seen you in forev- Homura? Oh, Homura, why are you crying?”

Homura started sobbing “After I left, I-I couldn’t make any friends! I’ve been alone for t-ten years. I k-kept hoping I’d see you again, oh god I missed you so m-much!”

Madoka wrapped her crying friend into a hug “I’m sorry Homura,” She pulled out of the hug briefly to look at the black-haired girl’s face. “I’m sorry, Homu.” Homura hugged Madoka tighter. They could have stayed like that forever. Eventually, they pulled apart, Madoka wiped Homura’s tears and they continued to walk home.

Four-year-old Homura Akemi may have been shy but Fourteen-year-old Homura Akemi?

Fourteen-year-old Homura Akemi was happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This was supposed to be really short with just Madoka, Homura and a little bit of Sayaka but the story went and tossed in the others. Welp.
> 
> Also, fun fact: The part about Homura dressing up for Halloween despite Halloween not being big in Japan is based off of one of my friends from there. Her family moved to the U.S. for a few years for her dad's job and they loved it here especially Halloween (her parents would dress up as ketchup and mustard every year.Quite frankly, it was adorable) so now every year you can always tell which house is theirs because it has Halloween decorations on it. Just thought I would throw that in there.
> 
> Also, also, yes, the song Madoka is singing is "Connect" the Madoka Magica opening
> 
> I hope you enjoy and please comment what you thought of it <3
> 
> -Cat


End file.
